A Guide to Motorcycle Insurance in Tennessee (TN)

Tennessee has a varied climate and diverse terrain which makes it an interesting place to ride a motorcycle. One thing that has to be sorted out though before you can enjoy the stunning scenery of the Appalachian Mountains on your motorcycle, or soak yourself in the musical tradition by riding around Nashville’s streets, is to get some comprehensive Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance that makes sure that the full weight of an insurance companies financial muscle is behind you.

I am going to dig into what you should be looking for from a motorcycle insurance policy in Tennessee, what the state expects you to have as a bare minimum, and also why you may need to supplement that basic cover in order to get something that is properly useful.

What are the minimum requirements for Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance?

There are certain minimum requirements for motorcycle insurance in Tennessee that if you satisfy you can legally ride on the roads of Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville or any of the other cities and beautiful scenery that surrounds them in Tennessee.

They are as follows:

$30,000 – Bodily injury liability cover for one person
$60,000 – Bodily injury liability cover for one accident
$25,000 – Property Damage Liability Cover

These levels are more typically referred to as 30/60/25 cover.

Are the Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance minimum requirements high enough?

The nature of any type of motorcycle insurance is that it is NOT a topic that traditionally makes anyone feel a rush of excitement to sort out. And there is in fact a little bit of a tendency to treat it as a necessary expense, and one to be dealt with as swiftly as possible.

This is understandable, but the reality is that riding a motorcycle is inherently dangerous (far more so than driving a car), and so you need to make sure that you cater for that fact by having good levels of cover.

The minimum requirements are designed to be safety net, but they are not designed to be an all-inclusive, one size fits all package. And there are several reasons why you should adapt them in order to end up with a Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance policy that more aptly fits your needs.

The first thing you should consider doing is increasing the basic amount of liability cover that is on offer. Whilst the Tennessee levels are actually slightly above average (25/50/25 is more normal); they are still lower than several other states by a considerable margin (Maine is 50/100/25 for example); and even then those rates are below what most commercial Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance Companies would recommend.

Even given that they are clearly a little biased, there are some sound reasons why you should substantially increase your levels of liability cover. Medical costs in the United States are very high and the average hospital stay cost over $14,000 in 2010, so it is very easy to see how costs can escalate quickly, especially if you are involved in an accident. If multiple people are injured (which is easily possible where multiple cars are involved), then you can very quickly find yourself in a situation of maxing out your insurance if you have only opted for basic levels.

The second aspect to consider is raising the levels of property damage cover.  $25,000 sounds a lot until you realise that if you are involved in a multi-car incident, and are found to be at fault, then the costs of replacing those cars could very easily exceed $25,000. So it makes sense to get more adequate levels of property damage cover.

Thirdly, the basic minimums do not cover you for theft, vandalism or storm damage. So depending on where you live and the kinds of uses that you wish to put your motorcycle too, then you may want to consider adding those into the mix.

These are normally covered under full coverage, comprehensive Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance, and are well-worth considering because most bikes (about 80%) are not recovered once they have been stolen, and so if you haven’t got any insurance cover then you will be left to pick up the bill.

Not a nice thought.

(If you want to read the legal jargon surrounding Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance and the regulations about it then you can do that on the Tennessee Insurance Departments website.)

https://www.tn.gov/commerce/index.shtml

The bottom line is that you do have choices when it comes to your motorcycle insurance cover in Tennessee, and that simply by giving a little more thought to the types of policy that you really need, and then getting a range of Tennessee Motorcycle Insurance Quotes in order to compare what is available, you can very quickly sort yourself out with a far superior policy often for a far cheaper price.

 

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